Hidden Love
by LightofSouthN
Summary: This is based on Shizune's first mission after she had returned to the town after travelling with Tsunade. Would the two jounins ever get to understand each other? Shizune x Genma Chapter 4 UP
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Naruto. Please do not sue me. This is my first Genma x Shizune fanfic. Enjoy! cough please excuse the grammar. I tried.

Three figures watches as they hid in the trees as the four green vested jounins left their country with their required prize. Their faces were each covered with a mask, bearing the Wood country symbol. That was their country's prized herb. It was never used anywhere outside their country. Any enemy who was poisoned by their own poison would not recover without it. To them, their enemies deserve to die.

"After them!" the leader whispered. His team was one of the five teams dispersed after their Kage has realized that outsiders had gotten a hand on their priced antidote.

Shizune's group has a formation with Genma leading the way, Raidou guarding the back, Iwashi behind her, and the medic right after the leader. Raidou's ears perked up, his ear muscles responding to the direction of the sounds coming behind him.

"They are coming, keep moving!"

Genma made an irritating sound; the enemy approach was reaching his ears. It does not sound like a small group of shinobi was chasing them but it seem like a whole lot of them coming right their way. Shizune looked at him and looked at the rest of the team. Based on experience, she could tell the guys were running low on chakra and stamina. Taking the pursuiters on would be a gamble.

They didn't get enough sleep as the enemy were on constant town patrol and occasionally knocked on their hotel door for checks of suspicious or wanted personal. Even at the midnight. The Woods ninjas were too observant and were always on alert. Shizune and her team had tried to sneak in using civilian clothing and acted normal.

However, their guard ferrets exposed their identities with their sense of smell after they have paid for the herb from the farmer. Alarm was raised and soon trouble started. Leaf Shinobi and their herbs do not go together it seems. It may take days to reach Konoha.

If they take them head on right now, they might not make it, if they try to lose them, it might work but still it depended on how much chakra was needed.

"Raidou…." Genma called out. He can't afford to waste any more energy to explain the next step.

"….." Raidou thought for a second and narrowed his eyes. "Got it, come on Iwashi." Iwashi looked at Raidou awkwardly. "Wait, Raidou!" Shizune called out. She wanted to remind them to keep in formation if they want to increase their success rate.

"Genma…."

"I will explain later. Come on." Shizune kept quiet and followed the other jounin.

The enemy jounin stopped his comrade from doing his jutsu further. His comrade stopped and hoped that his jutsu has caused psychological effect on the Konoha shinobis.

"Let's just go after them silently; they should be tired by now, search!" The groups of six were splitted into two groups.

"HA!"

The sound of their persuaders has ceased. Shizune continued to listen for more to confirm the situation.

"Genma.." she started.

"We are not out of their borders yet. They must be up to something." He jumped down to the bottom of the forest with Shizune after him.

Both jounins sat on the ground. The roots of the trees were gigantic there and it should cover them for a period of them as they rest. They tried to catch their breath as quietly as possible to avoid detection. They rested their back against the roots; none of them said a single word to each other.

Their mission objective was to retrieve a highly guarded special herb that was only found in the Wood country. Previously, a team of Konoha ninjas encountered the Wood ninjas during an escort of someone whom the Wood ninjas were after for a long time. Ninjas of both sides has missions to accomplish and put up a fierce fight. The battle resulted in severe casualty, It could have been worse if the ANBU on patrol had not intercepted. However, the Leaf ninjas are badly poisoned by their darts and weren't responding positively to the drugs, which they developed best to their knowledge.

Desperate to save these ninjas, Tsunade sent Shizune and her team to head to Woods country and acquire the required herbs. Before hand, she warned about that they do not have any intelligence of the Woods country since the country usually kept to itself. The best chance was to infiltrate the country by using civilian mode to prevent any unwanted uproar.

Genma kept watch and listened for approaching footsteps as Shizune rested. He hoped that Raidou and Iwashi would bring the required herbs to Tsunade. The reason he did the split, is to act as a scapegoat so that the other two could survive and save the affected Leaf ninjas. He wanted to send Shizune after Raidou but in this situation, he needed someone with more stamina, which was why he chose Iwashi over her. In this way, Raidou won't be slowed down. Girls…. He chewed on his senbon.

_She needs to recover more chakra than me, being medic and all_…he thought. He saw that the sky turned dark. Shizune gave an unintended cough and a croak which indicated she was going to throw up or something. Throw up? She has not eaten anything at all after that last food pill they had. It may not going to fill her up but still…

_Damn, did I pushed her too hard? _He thought, he has sure he has taken care of the team well and running for 4 hours straight was nothing to him. However, for Shizune, she has just gotten back to the village. Has she gotten stronger when she was away with Tsunade? Does she has the stamina to keep up? Has she trained? Genma wanted answers but decided to keep it. It has been a long time since he has a fellow higher ranked female jounin by his side. He cursed his ego.

"You all right? Don't force yourself." He finally spoke out in his usual casual voice. Shizune just nodded.

"I will be fine after a rest, don't worry." She gave a brave smile. Genma frowned, even though she said she was fine, her face color told another story, the face of fatigue. He hoped that she was not going to use her chakra for any instant body healing. There he saw it, fast hand seals with her one of her hands glowing. Genma stopped her.

"Don't do this."

"But Genma, we can't stay here forever, I got to."

"I am no medic but…" he took her wrist to feel her pulse. He later put a hand to her forehead. His eyes widened at his vital analysis and hoped he was wrong.  
"Damn." he cursed in his mind.

Please review and I will update as soon as possible :D


	2. Chapter 2

The Wood shinobi combed the area for signs of any of the Leaf Shinobis. One of them jumped to the tree top to where their leader was.

"Captain! We can't seem to find them." he burst out.

"Quiet, send out the ferrets. If they are hiding as an object, they would be able to sniff them out."

"Ha!" The ninja jumped off to another branch to tell the comrades who was responsible for summoning the small creatures. The captain jumped to a higher branch and looked around for clues , such as broken twigs or foot prints.

"You can run but you can't hide." His eyes eyed on the bridges, which linked to the main gates around the country. The bridges linked to different countries and their hidden villages. He took out a flute and blew a tune. The tune echoed around the woods. At the meantime, he spotted two running figures jumping over the edge of the rising bridges just before the platforms were raised.

"Captain! Two escaped through the West gate!"

"Two?" he observed the remaining gates. "There should be four."

"We didn't see the other two sir, we doubt that they made it to any of the bridges."

The jounin smiled. He relaxed and squatted down on the branch he was standing on. "Well then, let's find them. Alert the guards to update me if there's anyone else crossing the borders."

The shinobi saluted. "Yes sir!"

The jounin smiled as he looked at the plants which has pollen fallen out of them. "Only the weak will perish and the strong will survive. The reason the weakest is always left behind, is because they are a burden to the rest, isn't it my precious?"

He grabbed a leaf and crushed it. He stood up and saw the surrounding environment filled with almost invisible pollen. It only revealed itself in bright sunlight.

"It's a cruel shinobi world out there."

"Raidou!" Iwashi stared at the now drawn bridge from a high branch.

Raidou looked around and noticed most of the bridges has been drawn. He paused for a moment before speaking. "I hope they will be fine." He stared down at the bottomless canyon below.

"Let's go". Iwashi nodded and followed Raidou back.

"We will be back to help you just hang in there." Raidou thought

Genma bent down to the puddle to wet one of his leg bandages. He and Shizune managed to find an underground cave nearby. According to Genma, past Shinobis who has tried to enter the country stealthfully must have dug the cave. There was a small puddle leaking from the ceiling of it.

In a corner, Shizune laid down, using her hip pouch as a temporary support for her head with a hand to her stomach. Her eyes were closed. Genma was glad that the tunnel was big enough for him to walk through without any hindrance and walked back to Shizune.

Flashback

"Please go first back first." Shizune begged. "I will catch on later."

"….." Genma continued to look around the area. Shizune struggled to get up on her feet, attempted to follow him. Genma walked back to support her, decided that she was not ready to move on yet. Shizune soon felt dizzy and fell forward. Genma managed to catch her on the front, but lost his footing and they both hit a tree which bark was covered by thick ferns and vegetation.

Genma saw it coming and braced himself for a backache later. However, he was surprised that they actually went through the tree and slid down through a passageway. Shizune held to Genma tight during the short ride and they came to a stop.

"What was that?" he looked around. He subconsciously placed an arm over Shizune's waist after serving his post as a sliding cushion. "You all right?"

"…..yeah…" Shizune blurted out. "Feel so dizzy…."

"Shizune, you are burning up, its more than exhaustion…."

"……." Shizune felt clingy and placed her head onto Genma's chest. She just could not analyze what was going on with her body at the moment, her head was feeling light.

"How are you feeling?" he asked

"…….."

"Shizune?" he tried again.

"Hmm?"

"……" He placed the makeshift towel over her head and pressed it down with his hand.

Shizune was surprised by the move; she didn't know that Genma has a soft side like this. She gently took his hand away from her forehead.

"I am sorry…." Came his reply

"…..What?" Shizune looked into his direction

"I am sorry that I can't get you back to Konoha as soon as possible."

"Its all right, if you must, please leave me here and report back to the village first. I will come after you shortly."

"I can't do that."

"Genma….."

"I am not leaving a nakama behind for nothing." His eyes narrowed. "Especially when you are burning up for no reason."

"Genma, I can take care of myself. I am a medic remember?" Shizune almost made her statement sound like an order. She felt her chakra draining although she wasn't doing anything. Exhaustion could lead to chakra drainage.

But the weird thing was, she was already resting for a few hours and her stamina has slowly returned however, her chakra was being wasted on something else. She feared that whatever was happening to her was turning her chakra to feed something else in her body, which she did not channel it to.

Genma reached into his hip pouch and took out a food pill. He helped Shizune up so that she could swallow it properly and regain her strength quicker.

"……."

"That's not my main concern." He said. He closed his eyes, listening. Scuffling sounds can be heard. It was not made by humans but by animals. Small animals that would mean….

"Cheh…." He bit his senbon. He used one hand, dug into his hip pouch, and prepared senbons between fingers on both hands. He hoped whatever was outside did not pick up their scent. Sniffing sound could be heard and sound of paw digging was initiated.

Genma narrowed his eyes and hoped that the creature would go away or his trap work. He needs to get Shizune to a doctor fast. No, he would never turn a sick nakama to an enemy for help, that would be suicide and betrayal. But if he don't , Shizune might die. Konoha was days away. The Wood country was just in a few miles.

Genma counted his options. Teleportation no jutsu could be used but it required a reasonable amount of chakra, the amount he did not have now, especially for two people.

He has always used it for instant appearance at the Elders' and the hokage when they summoned for him.

"Just a little bit more."

Shizune whimpered slightly at the pain. She was sweating profusely and her breathing was getting rapid.

"Tsunade-sama…..."

"Shhh." Genma took her hand and squeezed it. He was not sure why he does that but he wanted to make it clear to Shizune that she wasn't alone.

"Raidou, did you managed to find them?" one of the voice boomed from outside.

Genma perked at his friend's name. His heart was filled with hope.

Sorry for the crappy late chapter, things got cropped up and I can't even sit down to write ;;. Hope it was a good one. Thank you for your reviews!


	3. Chapter 3

Genma frowned at the soft digging. How would Raidou knew where they were? Weren't they supposed to head back to Konoha with the herb? He pondered, Raidou wasn't the type of person to betray his orders.

He pressed his ear towards the voice, pushing to hear Raidou's voice. None.

"Raidou, are they in there? Are you sure?" The ferret looked up to the owner with apologetic eyes.

"Was it trained? It looked too young to be sniffing out enemies." The leader stared at the ferret which is no more than 2 months old. He kneeled down and stared at the ferret, holding it up by the scruff.

"Captain!" The handler was shocked. The ferret struggled against the improper handling and shrieked. He scanned the ferret for the distinctive marking that all graduate ferrets have. There it was, a two band.

"You dared used a "Genin" ferret on a search mission? Huh?! What help can they be?"

He put the ferret down. "Raidou" ran towards its handler and hid inside his cloak. "Raidou" could almost hear the other higher ranked ferrets snickering.

"The night have fallen, alert the night pack for patrol." The leader turned as his men followed behind.

Genma listened and depended on his senses to tell him that the danger was clear. On the outside that is. Besides him, Shizune wasn't in a better condition. Earlier on, he had plotted a route back to Konoha despite the bridges being drawn. One obstacle remained in the way, the waterfall leads to an opening, which used to have a full-length bridge that was now destroyed. How deep the bottom was, he had tried throwing a rock down and listened for a feedback. There was none.

He sighed as he leaned against the side of the waterfall exit considering his options. He looked up and saw a pulley. However, there were not any ropes. On the other hand, was there? Genma saw there was something disrupting the flow of the waterfall as if there was something in the middle, splitting the water slightly.

Cautiously, Genma placed his hand on the object that disrupted the flow. He felt something cold, something stiff, something strong and it only felt like.

"An almost invisible rope…" Not one, but two, one on top of him, another on the ground. He tested by putting his hands on the rope and his feet on the other rope. He started to walk sideways and slowly out of the waterfall, with his chakra channeled to his feet. He kneeled down and tested to see if the rope is fat enough so that he did not have to use the rope over his head by using his hands. He stared at the distance between the starting point and the end point. It was about a good hundred meters. There seem to have a exit point at the end. Better check it out He thought.

"Genma…." Shizune called out softly, she needed another drink and wondered where her friend was. Her head hurt and being worried about her comrade did not make her felt any better. She was always a worrywart. She pushed her arms to the ground to help her get her upper body up. There was a makeshift leaf bowl beside her, filled with water. She took the bowl and drank the water slowly. She slowly lied back down.

"I will get better in a while…" she thought. "Just a little bit more." She was scared. Why was she feeling so cold? One of her legs had turned very numb and she couldn't move.

Genma has waited until it was nightfall. The enemy would not be able to see him where it was so dark. He also had problems trying to see where he was going. Maybe using the rope over his head would be a good idea for guidance. High winds made his journey unstable. The ropes would sway back and for, sometimes forcing Genma to pause and thought of a possible way to counter the problem.

However, he realized that he has to apply chakra to his hand and feet if he wanted to prevent being blown off. Boy was he glad that he got his hair holed up under his bandana. He would imagine his own hair whipping the hell out of his face if he wasn't wearing it.

As an experienced special jounin with many high-ranked mission entrusted to him, Genma always saw it as an opportunity to learn new tactics, some that required a bit of practice. It's always better late than never. He could not afford to risk Shizune's life and plunging down to who-knows-how-deep-you-can-go.

He would have to come up with a proper way to cross to the other side with Shizune on his back, unless Shizune would be able to hold her own.

Tsunade looked at the herbs and to Raidou and Iwashi.

"I see." Tsunade frowned and nodded. She noticed that the both of them were experiencing fatigue as well and called for two medic nins to see them to the hospital. The two medic nin appeared on requests, each were standing side by side to their to be attended patients.

"If this could happen to us, then wouldn't it be worse if they stayed around the place longer, especially when the bridges were withdrawn?" Iwashi was reluctant. He was worried about his comrade and wished he could pull them out of there quickly.

"I have dispatched a group of medic nins in their path on outbound path back to Konoha, so don't worry. They would be in good hands."

"Please let us assist them, Hokage-sama." Raidou wasn't backing down that easily.

"You two are to be contained in a confined medical room until we confirmed that you weren't infected with anything contagious." Tsunade said.

"But we…"

"Enough." The both of them kept quiet. Tsunade smiled to her medics. "They are in your hands, I expected a report afterwards."

"HA!" They teleported.

Tsunade looked out of the window.  
"I hope Shizune is all right."

Sorry for the late chapter again. ;; bows Thank you for your reviews. Please continue to review. Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

Back at the cave, Genma felt he was feeling light headed as well. Could what was happening to Shizune coming up to him now? He shook his head, think positive! He reprimanded himself. He couldn't afford to risk irrational actions now. His head turned to Shizune who was still trying to recover from what medical status he wasn't sure of. This doesn't seem like anything normal. Idiot, he scolded himself.

What do you know about medical stuff anyway? He lay down beside her. He stared at the ceiling and there were vivid wall drawings on them. Pictures of shinobis running from a group, some stabbed in the back, one person was having his hands in seal position while his partner pointed for his men towards the enemy to get them. His eyes scanned the small drawings assuming to be kagebushins but they seem more like waves instead. Along besides them are weasel looking critters with baring fangs. Dotted markings clouded over the enemies and eventually split into two paths, one is an escape route which indicates the shinobis attempting to walk pass an ancient path with veins as ropes, showed some shinobis got blown off to their deaths, another as the enemy caught them and sent them off to their graves.

Genma's eyes widened as it stopped there. As he tried to interpret what the pictures was trying to indicate to him, he soon felt very tired.Night was always the best time to sneak out of trouble however Genma felt that he wasn't ready to walk the  
ropes now. There has to be another way. "Genma…." Shizune groaned. "It hurts…." Her breathing got rapid. Genma snapped up immediately and calmly held her.

"You will be fine. Shizune, just conserve your energy?" Shizune looked at him weakly. Genma adjusted his arm so that Shizune's head would lie between his arm and his shoulder towards his chest, his other arm supporting her body and his legs supporting hers. In this way, neither parts of her body touches the cold wet floor. Perfect for monitoring her temperature.

"I should be able to…I don't know what's eating up my charka…I felt I am being eaten from inside out…." She closed her eyes. To calm her, Genma strokes her back gently. While doing that, he chewed on his senbon, thinking. Chew?

Xxxxflashbackxxx

The farmer showed them around the herbs farm. "You guys must have traveled far to discover the famous Hidden Wood Country's specialty, no? We have herbs to cure our shinobis so that we don't have to source from other hidden villages. That's what makes our village independent!"

He proudly showed Genma and his group dressed as normal civilians his crops.

"How are they prepared to be mixed with other ingredients?" Shizune asked out of pure curiousity.

"Prepare? Ha! We chew them. These babies are specially grown so that in times of emergency, one can just pop in to their mouths. Save the trouble from mixing and ingredient hunting!"

"And they taste like…?" Iwashi gives an uncertain look at the weirdly colored seeds.

"Oh they taste like mint! But some gave bitter taste as well, but as they say, the bitter they are, the better and stronger they are." He showed his toothy grin. "Try some!" He plucked them and showed them in scooped hands.

"……….." Genma looked at the seeds and examined them without eating them, while Raidou, Iwashi and Shizune started to sample their share. He could sense something is wrong with this man.

"Hey Genma, these are not bad, try some!" Raidou spoke while chewing.

"…….." He looked at Raidou with the farmer looking on. Poor lad, he may not be able to speak … I think I just have something for him. "Wait here lad; I will get you some herbs for your throat." The farmer stumbled off to get something to help Genma's "condition".

"Since when you had a throat problem, Genma?" Raidou chuckled and nudged his buddy. Genma shrugged. He was not comfortable with having a female jounin in his group, especially if it's a high ranked Hokage's puppy so he should speak when he felt appropriate. If anything happened to Shizune, Tsunade-sama would not forgive him for hurting her apprentice, being leader and all.

"Is he always like that?" Shizune whispered to Iwashi.

"Well, he talks when he feels a need to. He's a quiet guy." Iwashi helped himself to more of the seeds in the harvest basket. "He worked with anbus before but I noticed he hardly talks to you."

"...Maybe something happened to him while I was away with Tsunade-sama."

Iwashi shrugged. "No comments on that."

"Hokage sama said the herbs would be in a less threatening paled color, like cyan, yellow. We must be on our guard." Genma spoke.

The group looked at what they had tasted. Iwashi had a cyan colored seed, Raidou a yellow one and Shizune a dark green seed. Genma could not affirm his orders so he thought nothing of it. He saw the old man walking back with a small sack of seeds.

"Here you go! It may probably help you talk again, yes it will, it will help cure other diseases around the woods around here. Heh." He rubbed his hands in glee. Shizune examined the seeds and they came in different light pale colors. "We will take this then." Shizune took out a pouch with money and lifted the old man's hand and pressed the money on to his palm. "Thank you so much, this is a lot! Are you sure its fine?"

He looked up at Shizune. "Yes sir, we want to thank you for your time for showing us around your farm as well. It is a small token." She smiled.

Genma just turned his back when the old man stopped him. "Please do try some on your way back." He lifted one of Genma's scroll pouches and stuffed handful in. "It will come in handy." Genma mouthed a thank you to him and turns to the rest, tilted his head to signal them to go back to their inn.

After they left, the wood shinobis came out from their hiding places and approached the old man. "You sure you know what you are doing?" "I would not dare to defy the Kikage's orders. " The old man bowed in respect to them.

"I saw you giving them our prized herbs."  
"They are not the actual prescription, I am not stupid. I don't know where they are from but I am sure they had eaten it which we can use to our advantages."

"Master! Someone has taken the panacea!" One of the farmer's workers came running towards them. "We had one sack missing!"

"That's impossible, are you sure?"  
"It doesn't tally with our inventory, master!"  
"I couldn't have sold it to that group earlier. It was located in the anti-antibotics warehouse"  
"Its missing sir!"

"You told me that was the wrong prescription!" The shinobi demanded.  
"Must have been in the wrong mix then… Captain, I am so sorry!"

One of the ninja ferrets sniffed the air and squeaked to its handler.

"What? Those are leaf shinobis?!"The ferret squeaked in affirmation.

"…..We will get it back. Let's go!" His team nodded and headed out to find the sack of missing panacea and Genma's team. "They will not only get away, but they will not survive either. I have a justu just when they don't know what hits them." The leader grinned.

Xxxxend of flash back xxxx

Genma felt his scroll pouches and opened one of the lids. Genma took out one of the pale colored seeds in question and stared at it. If this seed can helps him, it would save Shizune too. If it turns out on the contrary, it would spell the end of him and probably Shizune too, like the shinobis in the wall paintings. "Trust myself not to trust anyone, even this. Anything for getting us out. Alive." He popped in a seed.

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I am sorry that I haven't updated like forever, I started working so I haven't got time TT. Hope you like it! Don't kill me ducks for flying objects


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